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Catch up with our newsletters

  • October 2022

    Free downloadable book with literacy teaching ideas, graphic novel recommendations and free poetry resources. Read the full newsletter.

  • September 2021

    Seven free English units for Reception to Year 6 focussed on the environment to use with your class. Read the full newsletter.

  • April 2021

    A practical poetry resource from Pie Corbett to use with your class. A great short piece from Jamie Thomas on how to plan a Talk for Reading unit. Maria Richards talks us through using Traction Man to teach grammar in Year 2 and Jamie Grossmith explains how he's got his class writing discursively in Year 6. Read the full newsletter.

  • January 2021

    40 English units covering Reception to Y7. An updated blog with creative tried-and-tested ideas for English home-schooling from Jamie Thomas. Model texts and other resources and videos for free online here. Read the full newsletter.

  • September 2020

    A selection of easy-to-use writing and poetry ideas from Pie Corbett. 67 quick topic ideas that trainer Jamie Thomas has put together for shared writing inspiration. Two vocabulary games by Julia Strong. Plus an excellent piece on using Where the Wild Things Are by Rob Carpenter. Read the full newsletter.

  • May 2020

    Daily lockdown blog with creative ideas for maths and English home-schooling from Jamie Thomas, Kathryn Pennington explains two simple ways of making up stories with children, a lockdown story and activities from Italy, two language games from Pie Corbett , SF Said explains his writing process for Varjak Paw and a free video and teaching notes for the picture book Tell Me a Dragon. Read the full newsletter.

  • April 2020

    Daily radio broadcasts on RadioBlogging, Pie answers your FAQs on YouTube, free Reading Spine Teaching Guide to download, live online body percussion workshops, a new vocabulary game and portable paradise poems. Read the full newsletter.

  • January 2020

    A free video and teaching notes demonstrating how to use short-burst writing. Author Vashti Hardy explains how drawing maps and storytelling inspire her writing. Headteacher Sonia Thompson shares her ten tips to boost reading for pleasure and there's a new poetry resource based on the Sue Hardy-Dawson poem Where do you get ideas? Read the full newsletter.

  • September 2019

    A reading case study from Burnley Brow School in Oldham, a Top 10 list of Year 6 fiction books from Jon Biddle, two articles on the novel Podkin One-Ear and how to get the most out of the novel. There's a new free model text & teaching notes from Jamie Thomas, case studies from Coastlands School in Wales and Bromsgrove International School in China, and two resources - one for grammar and one for poetry. Read the full newsletter.

  • May 2019

    Mini Grey, author of Traction Man, writes a super piece on what inspires her as a writer. There's a new model text and teaching notes from Dean Thompson and a piece from our newest TfW training centre, John of Gaunt Secondary School in Trowbridge. Read the full newsletter.

  • January 2019

    Two great case studies on how to improve reading results from Selby Primary in Yorkshire and Maidwell Primary in Northants, some free hook-ideas from trainer Jamie Thomas and there's info about the We Are Writers project from Scholastic which provides a free way to publish children's work. Read the full newsletter.

Read older newsletters here